Update from the SPARK® Media Launch Event

After a trial at The Royal Bolton NHS Trust, everyone at WiFi SPARK was thrilled to officially launch the SPARK® Media platform. The event, held at The Lowry Hotel, Manchester, in early October, included presentations and talks by our key partners who make the SPARK® Media tool such a great entertainment option for Trusts across the NHS.

SPARK® Media has been produced thanks to a close partnership with Samsung, Ascom, Imprivata® and Datasym, respectively. We were all thrilled to be able to finally shout about the amazing ways our platform delivers patient entertainment straight to a person’s own device, while also unlocking key benefits for Trusts at the same time.

For example, Piotr Lipiec, Samsung’s Senior Business Development Manager, explained how SPARK® Media sits across the Samsung HTV platform to give Trusts a customised IPTV offering to patients. This gives them full HD in a way which is suitable for the healthcare environment.

The SPARK® Media platform allows direct delivery of terrestrial and satellite TV, as well as Video On Demand. The aim of this is to give patients a stay in hospital which is as entertaining and comfortable as possible.

Binks spoke about the way Ascom’s partnership allows SPARK® Media to ensure patient-to-carer comms is as smooth as possible. A patient’s request can be made from their own device and sent directly to the relevant staff member’s Ascom Myco2 Smart Device. This takes away an invaluable amount of wasted admin time and needless responses to patient calls.

The Datasym and WiFi SPARK link-up was described by Elliot Perry who explained the meal ordering service that SPARK® Media offers. This alone will allow Trusts to achieve huge savings per year on food wastage.

Food Wastage Example Based on a 25 Ward Hospital

Assume we over deliver an average of 4 meals per ward, per meal service, based on each patient meal costing £2.50:

And here are some screengrabs, from Elliot Perry's talk, which show how patient's own devices can be used to better control and analyse meal ordering so that there is less wastage. First, here are some of the devices that patients can now place meal orders from:

And here is the back-end screen for NHS Staff to see how meal ordering is progressing.

And behind all of this lies the Imprivata® features, which mean clinicians and care staff can log in to multiple patients’ dedicated profiles on a single device. Vanessa Wilkinson, Imprivata® Regional Sales Manager, told guests how this dramatically streamlines workflows and processes, reduces paperwork and removes the need for return visits to the office during rounds.

In light of how successful SPARK® Media has been so far, we were thrilled to hear from Brett Walmsley, CTO from The Royal Bolton NHS Trust, who said, “We are delighted with the SPARK® Media Platform and the difference it has made to both patients and NHS staff alike. SPARK® Media supports multiple languages and customisable text options creating a service which is accessible to patients of all ages and nationalities… At the same time, this will make precious time efficiencies for doctors and nurses.”

And that ties together why everyone here at WiFi SPARK, along with our key partners in producing the platform, are so thrilled to launch SPARK® Media. It helps NHS Trusts and improves a patient’s experience in equal measure.

If you’d like to find out more about the platform and what it entails, take a look at our free resource via the button below.

Claire Bradley

Claire is a strategic marketer with over 10 years’ experience of managing market-leading brands. She is a collaborative and customer-focused marketer with a proven track record of driving growth and share. She is responsible for the marketing strategy and brand communications for WiFi SPARK.